Supporter and protector



E. J. THORP.

SUPPORTER AND PROTECTOR. APPLICATION FILED JAN. 20. 1920.

1,:,z31,2'54. v Patented 111115 14, 1921.

INVENTOR E 2 By "UNITED STATES PATENT OFF/ICE."

' EDWARD J. THORP, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO A. G. SPALDING & BROS, OF

NEW YORK, N. Y, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

SUPPORTER AND PROTECTOR.

nasnesa.

' Specification of Letters Patent. Patented J 1111MB 14, 1921.

Application filed January 20, 1920. Serial No. 852,668.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD J. THom, a citizen of the United States, residing in the borough of the Bronx of the city of New York, in the State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvethe outer face of the fabric of the supporter,

the latter being interposed between the protector and the body. The objection to having these two separate elements independent of one another in their adjustment and care is obvious. The protector as a separate unit may even be lost from the belongings of the owner and much time is consumed and some diflicult is encountered in securing it to the body after having first adjusted the supporter. The object of the present invention is to provide a combined supporter and protector in which the protector shall be carried detachably with the supporter andheld thereby in proper relation to the bodythat when the supporter is adjusted to the body the protector is automatically drawn into proper position, A further object of the invention'is to providea supporter and ro-- tector of the character described which s all be brought into the desired relationship by a simple and inexpensive construction and onewhich will permit the protector to be readily detached from the supporter when desired, as for cleaning, replacement or some other reason.' The invention in its simplest embodiment contemplates the provision of a pocket in the supporter, one wall. of the pocket constituting a portion of the supporter and the pocket being of such a character as to receive-a protector in )roper relation to the body of the wearer: eference is to be had to the accompanying drawing for a 'detailed description of one such simple embodiment, in which drawing- Figure 1 is a front view of the combined supporter and protector, the protector being indicated in dotted lines within the pocket.

Fig. 2 is a view looking down on the supporter shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a view in section of a fra ment of the supporter and taken throng the pocket on the plane indicated by the line 33 of Fig. 1 and looking in the direction of the arrows.

Fig. 4c is a view in front elevation of a suitable form of protector.

1g. through the protector shown in Fig. 4 and taken on the plane indicated by the line 5-5 of Fig. 4 and looking in the direction of the arrows.

The supporter comprises generally a waist band a, leg strap or straps b and a supporter section or jock strap 0, of fabric, preferably elastic material. supporter section 0 and conforming generally in outline thereto is stitched a piece of fabric d, preferably nonelastic, which forms with the supporter section a pocket. The upper edge of the fabric d may terminate at about the line of the waist band a ready fastening or unfastening of the pocket 5 is a view in transverse section To the front side of the flap e. vThe improved protector f is preferably "formed of some light metal which ma be suitably reinforced by corrugations formed therein and along the periphery of the protector may be secured a strip 9 of rubber or other yielding material to further cushion the protector 0n the body.' The shape ofthe protector conforms generally to the shape of the supporter section 0'' and the pocket formed therewith by the piece of fabric 0!, so that the protector may he slipped into the pocket and will be held securely in proper relation tothe supporter and to the body of the wearer.

Formerly, it has been the practice to provide protectors which *are independent of supporters and have attached thereto suitable devices for securing the protector to the bod} in position along the outer side of the tector'withdrawn from the pocket. The con- 25 I supporterf By the presentinvention it is .intended that the protector 7 which is' of special construction shall be normally retained in place within the pocket formed by the supporter section 0 and the strip of fabric a3 and held therein by means of; the pocket fiap'e. NVhen the supporter is pulled l I on the body the protector Within the pocket will, at the-same time, be drawn into proper relation to the body of the wearer. The fab-' ric of the supporter section 0 .will be interposed between the body of. the wearer and .Jthe protector and the yielding strip 9 secured to the edge of the protector Will cushion the blows thereon against the body of the wearer. If it becomes desirable to remove the protector from the pocket for the purpose of cleaning either the protector or the supporter or for replacing the protector with another or for using the same protector on another supporter, it is evident that the pocket flap 6 may be readily i1'nastened by means of the snap fasteners 6,, and the.pro-

struction is simple, inexpensive to manufacture and involves no change in the construcition of the'usual form of supporter although it does involve a cheapening in. the cost of manufacture of the protector, I

I claim as my invention:

In combination with a supporter having an elastic waist-band, leg straps and jock strap sections of the same material as the Waistband, a piece of non-elastic fabric stitched at itslower and side edges. to the jock strap section, its upper edge being free and forming, a pocket therewith, a pocket flap of non-elastic fabric stitched to the waist-band directly above the sections forming the pocket, means to engage the pocket flap detac'hably with the pocket and an auxiliary metallic jock-strap of similar outline to the jock strap section and pocket carried removably Within the pocket. I v 1 This specification. signed this 19th day. of January, A, D. 1920. i

\ n v EDVVABDJ. THORP. 

